Onam is a celebration of nature: Suresh
This Onam, I will not be eating oily foods as I have two stents in my heart,” rues comedian-actor Suresh Menon, who looks forward to the festival each year. “I am searching for places where I can enjoy festive food without any ill-effects. I remember as a kid, we never had a school holiday for Onam. So we would come home from school eager for the Onam sadhya, the feast mum and grandmum prepared on this day. What I love about Onam is that it is a festival to celebrate nature, the harvest season and unity. We should get holidays to celebrate nature and teach our kids to do that too, instead of all the other national holidays we have,” says Suresh, adding he would “cheat and impress” his relatives with greetings in Malayalam “written by friends who are fluent in the language”. “The aunties in our family would be surprised that I know Malayalam so well,” says Suresh.
As this year the monsoons have wreaked havoc in Kerala, the celebration mood in the state “seems sober”. Suresh says,
“My home town Palakkad has been flooded and we have all been extremely worried. I have been in touch with relatives and friends over there and thankfully, everyone is fine. The farmers were looking forward to the harvest but now with the heavy rains and floods in many areas, it will be a sober Onam in the state, I think. We humans have not taken care of our planet. Look at the unusual weather conditions all over the world from heavy rains all over India this year to heat wave in Europe, which has caught everyone unawares.”